Say cheese
by Mellytvu
Summary: a short story about a small town with bad people.


Say cheese 3

Say Cheese

**Part 1**

The town of Rock Chester was having its annual town fair, which was getting worse and worse as the years went by. College kids were finding new ways to have a good time before leaving to go home. It was after all the respectable people, or even people with young children had left and gone home, when a reporter assigned with the task of finding some exciting news on the very boring festive was snooping around still looking for an angle. She had already interviewed a few people but was still looking for that big bang moment. Then a nice black Sudan pulled up in the outskirts of the fair a woman with sunglasses stepped out of the car followed by two tall men in suits, one with brown hair, the other a sandy blond. Melanie crept closer and snapped a picture. "Who wears sunglasses in the dark?" She asked herself, she stood a moment racking her brain for a possible answer. The blondie stepped in front of the woman who had just decided to pull her long hair into a ponytail; she had a nice brown skin tone and looked very sophisticated. She and the brunette followed blondie to a secluded wooded area. Mel took another photo and followed, with nothing better to do, they had definitely sparked the reporter in her.

"Where is he, I don't have time to be waiting around in the woods," yelled the woman, "Next time you demand to see him in his office." Walking in the woods in her nice new shoes did not sit well with Nitosha.

"It's a small town, Nitosha, if we were to show our faces in the Mayor's office, it would be the talk of the town for weeks," said the brunette.

"I don't care," she said swatting at some bug that had landed on her arm. "I'll give him five minutes."

"Would you relax, we just got here; besides, if you want you can walk around and enjoy the festivities."

Nitosha threw him a look that wiped the smile right off his face, "Five minutes, I suggest you call him."

Mel swatted at the bugs as well and looked at her phone for the time. She was about to leave thinking that nothing was worth being eaten alive by mosquitoes, when she noticed the Mayor finally making his way to the woods. He looked nervous and kept looking over his shoulder.

"Nitosha, I'm sorry I'm late but I took care of everything."

Nitosha nodded. "Now we can begin phase two…"

Mel crept closer so she could take a picture of what blondie was pulling out of his jacket pocket.

"Did you hear that?" The brunette said as he pulled out his gun and scanned the trees surrounding them. Mel stopped dead in her tracks, but the reporter in her forced her to take that last picture.

Mayor Shaw's eyes widened. "Will you put that thing away; someone may see you. Besides, it's most likely a deer you know, they are common in this area."

Nitosha, looked to where her colleague had pointed his gun, she was not sold on the idea of deer. "Great, I'm leaving, next time we will do business, it will be through the phone, and you two, go look for the source of that noise, and snuff it out."

**Part 2**

"Mark I'm telling you these people are up to something, it's a lot bigger than what I previously thought." She closed the office door behind her, "I was nearly shot." She finished in a whisper.

"They shot at you, why didn't you call the police!"

"And say what, 'I was snooping around and some brunette man pulled out a gun, oh and they were all standing in the woods?' Come-on, besides they would want some kind of evidence." He sunk into his chair, and she sat in hers, sitting opposite him, "When I got home last night I started thinking about that story I wrote two months ago, about all the money problems the town and college where having. I think it's connected." She paused for emphasis, "Like the Marshel's they were having problems with their farm now it's owned by this company called New Life Today."

He looked at her not impressed with this new bit of information, she could write one heck of a story but when it came to pitching an idea, it wasn't one of her strong points.

"I then looked up all the properties they had bought recently, what was strange were the banks that had given out loans to the farms had gone bankrupt, and this company buys it up, so they own the entire town."

Mark looked at Mel and sighed he had moved down here to Rock Chester, Ohio for the purpose of spending time with his family instead of chasing down stories like he did in new York. "All right, we'll look into this; I always thought that mayor was shady, ever since the first day I met him." He smiled to himself, "I wouldn't be surprised though; I mean, how can a small town mayor be able to afford $400 shoes. If what you saying is true, they will be doing it by the book. Everything will be legal, so we will need to get all of our bases covered before we do any whistle blowing, and let's just keep it between you and me okay. The less people that know about this the better." He started laughing at the image formulating in his head of Ted Shaw in jail, he cleared his throat. "I'll look into this and make some phone call, I know someone in the FBI that might know something."

Mayor Ted Shaw slipped out of his office and decided to walk across the street to Aunt May's Dinner, as customary he bought a newspaper, went in, and ordered the usual. He started reading the front page. He picked up his cell phone.

"Hello?" said a female voice.

"Yeah, we have a problem…" he replied.

Melanie had driven home after doing intensive research for Friday's paper. She ate leftovers and turned on her laptop to continue where she had left off on the Mayor Shaw story. After an hour had gone by she realized that she was again hungry and that the small meager leftovers had not even satisfied her after she had eaten it. She picked up her cell phone and dialed the number of the closes pizza hut and placed an order. They promised that it would arrive in no less than thirty minutes. She went back to her research and ignored the sound of her belly grumbling in the anticipation.

As she, scrolled down the lists of deeds, she saw a pattern. Every time some random bank or farm was going under, New Life Today, Sowers, and Mighty Fortress, swooped in and bought them, and at outrageously high prices, sometimes two to three times over what it was actually worth. Something was definitely up, and just like Mark had said they were all perfectly legal. "You guys are good, too good." She opened a new web browser, and typed in 'New Life Today.' It brought up a nice professional web page with links to sister web pages and the head corporate page Mighty Fortress.

_Our mission is to make the world a better place by helping to level out the playing field, so that everyone can rise up together. We spend countless dollars on improving efficiency for fuel…. raising the next generation of Einsteins…_

"They must be communist. 'Leveling the playing field,' what they mean is take money from some people giving it to others. Now 'rising up together,' if I'm not mistaken is making sure its equal pay…" she laughed to herself, "that has to be one of the most outlandish tail I've come up with. Mike would laugh me out of the room if I said that… still everything is legal. I don't understand where they're getting all this money from."

As if to answer her questioning the door bell rang followed by hard rapid pounding at her apartment complex, she put the laptop on her bed and got up to grabbed her purse excited about her pizza. She opened the door. They rushed in and closed the door. The first had already made a grab for her as she started to scream and run back to her room so she could make a break for it at the fire escape.

"Not so fast," he grabbed her and slammed her against a wall. Using the only weapon available she swung at him with her purse. It collided with his face but she didn't have enough time to retrieve it for round when he snatched it from her hands. "By your reaction I think you know what we're here for," said blondie

"I don't know what you're talking about; the thought that you could be a rapist crossed my mind."

"Ha she's got jokes. Those pictures. Where are the pictures? Where's your camera?" said the brunette.

"I don't have one." She said the wind was knocked out of her.

"You're a reporter, Melanie Hays," blondie said, "And like the lot of you, you stick your nose where it doesn't belong. Hey, get the stretcher we need to make this look authentic; time for you to say good night." He pulled her off the wall and at the same time placed a hankie on her, she put up a struggle before she was taken down.

Melanie woke up with a splitting headache and looked around her at first nothing registered and like a sledge hammer every detail came back to her. She didn't even get to see her pizza and these men, just stormed into her house; if she ever made it out alive she was going to presser the landlord to insert peep holes into every door in the apartment complex. If she had had one, Melanie deducted, she wouldn't be in this fix. She started struggling in the restraints.

They finally made it into an old looking building in what looked like to be down town Columbus, the nice area. They pulled up to a parking gate and slid their card past some device and soon the lever started to rise and they made their way to the back of the building. Blondie walked to Melanie's door and opened it. He had a gun in one hand and was reaching for her with the other. She jumped from out of the back of the van and followed the brunette as blondie held the gun to her back. Inside they took the elevators down stairs. They walked by a break room and a few small offices. At the end of the hallway there was a door. Brunette opened the door and they all walked down the flight of stairs. They opened the last set of door; Melanie started to wonder if they were planning of shooting her here. No one else had seemed to be in the building when they were walking around, and now she wished she had yelled and tried barracking herself in the break room, with the viding machine behind the metal door. Brunette stopped suddenly and Melanie too wrapped up in the ponderings of her death plowed right into him. Disgusted he opened the door. Mayor Shaw looked turn. He didn't like the idea of kidnapping people and killing them but he was already in too deep to turn back. When the door opened he stopped pacing, his eyes widening as he looked at Melanie. The brunet grabbed her by the back of her head and pushed her into the room, "Here's your deer."

**Part 3**

When Melanie didn't send him her story for the day's paper, or even show up to work, Mike knew something was wrong. He raced to his car and sped down to her home. The door was ajar; he took out a hankie that he carried on him, and pushed the door wider and stepped inside. Melanie was fresh out of college almost reaching the two year mark and was one of the neatest people he knew next to his wife. But now looking at her apartment he realized that she had been kidnapped. Everything was in disarray is the perpetrators had been looking for something. The camera, well his camera since she was still saving up to getting one of her own, he knocked on the neighbor's door.

"Excuse me ma'am, Melanie the girl next door, did anything strange happen to her last night?"

"She had an allergic reaction last night and was rushed to the hospital; it was so bad in fact that they had to carry her out on the stretcher, the poor thing." She shook her head as she recalled the scene.

"Thank, you." He walked back to his car. His cell phone started to ring, "Mel where are you!"

"Mike, I hope to God you didn't touch anything."

"Dan, where are you, those people took…"

"Know and just come down here we've got them trapped there in Downtown Columbus, after you told me about your problem with Mighty Fortress I had my people keep you and Mel under surveillance." Mike was about to say some smart remark about the people's rights but thought better of it. "And after they reported that she was kidnapped they followed the car all the way back to Columbus. If you want the big break in this you better hurry up." Mike didn't need any more encouraging then that. After clearing the parking lot he floored his gas all the way to Columbus.

Melanie was tied again to a chair, and by the looks of things she realized that Mayor Shaw would be her best bet in keeping her alive. The reporter and her was reignited, "Hey, Shaw, do you mind answering some questions?"

"About what?" He asked.

"Why are you doing this?"

"That's none of your concern." He replied.

The door opened and Nitosha looked at Shaw, "Why on earth did you have my guards bring her here, are you insane?" She yelled, "And you two, I am the one that gives the orders around here not Shaw."

"Well," Shaw replied, "I thought we could buy her silence. She doesn't need to die."

"Why on earth would I care about the life of one girl, when I've ordered the deaths of many people?" She turned to Blondie and Brunette, "Waste her."

"Wait I want in!" Mel said hopping it would somehow save her life.

"Listen you are surrounded, come out with your hands up," said a loud voice. Ted Shaw stood in the corner trembling. He started for the door.

"Stop right there Shaw, if I go down, I'm taking you with me." Nitosha said she turned to the other two people standing in the room, "Come with me and lock them in here we need to get rid of all the evidence."

Shaw watched the door closed; then started pacing the floor. "Shaw, I need you to tell me what is going on." He ignored her and continued to pace, "if you do I'll make sure I'll tell the judge when you're in court."

He stared at her for a long time before slightly nodding to himself, "There's oil there, so we plane on selling it to Korea, and retire early also I think Nitosha's boss was smuggling weapons to them as well, but I'm not sure. We figured if everything was owned by Mighty Fortress then no one would be able to speak out unless they wanted to be homeless and have their reputation shot."

"I don't understand they've been around for a decade, and they've never been caught?"

"Mighty Fortress is a mighty fortress and is mainly just a cover, like smoke, keeps everyone entertain, including you while everything is kept on the down low, under the rug so to speak. Like Nitosha said, she's done this before." The door opened and they all grabbed as stack of paper and started to shred them.

Out side Dan and a few of the SWAT team knocked down the door after standing there without any response from the people inside the building. They rushed in and made their way to the basement. Shots were fired, Mel screamed. Dan managed to untie Mel and drag her out of the line of fire and up stairs to where medics where waiting as well as other news crews.

It wasn't much of a wait when Mayor Shaw, Blondie, Brunette followed by Nitosha, all in handcuffs, where led out the building. Mike couldn't take it he turned to Mel, "May I have the pleasure of taking Shaw's Picture?"

"Go for it."

Mike picked up his camera and walked over to where Dan was questioning Shaw. "Hey, Mayor Shaw, say cheese." He snapped the picture.


End file.
